Mass Effect: Enterprise
by Achaewa
Summary: Takes place 70 years after the Reaper War. The story focuses on Alexandra Herd a supposed descendant of the Illusive Man, her ascendance from Navy officer to Spectre and investigation into corruption within C-Sec and the Spectres. Will also feature appearances by known ME characters and their grandchildren. Not an FShepard/Liara story, they are the canon couple in this story.
1. The Light That Pierces the Dark

**Mass Effect Enterprise**

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or storylines from the Mass Effect Universe. Only those I have created myself.

Introduction to Mass Effect: Enterprise:

Mass Effect: Enterprise will takes place in 2256, though it starts some years before. 70 years after the Reaper War, mimicking WW2 for us. The story follows an Alliance navy officer named Alexandra Harper Herd, a supposed descendant of The Illusive Man. The story will focus on her ascendance to Spectre, her investigation into a lost starship, corruption within C-Sec and the Spectres themself, the discovery of her heritage and wether she truly is a descendant of Jack Harper _aka_ the Illusive Man.

Through the story she will team up and meet with the grandchildren of the known Normandy crew and team. With appearances by the old crew who are still around, Wrex and Grunt being some of them.

In this timeline Shepard is female (Paragon with a hint of Renegade) and romanced Liara (hence the category).  
Kaidan sacrificed himself on Virmire.  
The entire team and the Normandy crew survived the suicide mission and the named members of the Cerberus crew also served on the Alliance rebuild Normandy.  
The entire Blue, Green, Red Crucible ending is ignored.

As of now the rating is T though I might change it to M in the future, where language and violence will be more frequent.

* * *

The darkness surrounded her like dark smoke, moving and twisting around her, embracing her, licking its way across the ground and forming impenetrable walls of black around her. Leaving only small rooms of light to shine through. The light shone above her flickering as flames in the sky, and with each bright flash she could sense a hundred lives extinguishing, turning into ash, to drift aimlessly among the stars. She could hear screams, whispers, sentences. As if hundreds of lives cried out for help. The voices were scared, afraid of the darkness, they cried for clarity and comfort, they cried out for help, for a saviour. A saviour who would only kill them and their cries of despair turned into hate. Hate towards those who could not defend them. Hate towards those who could not defend themself. Hate towards the living and the dead. Hate towards the light.

"_They are controlling you!"_ The darkness took the form of a man with eyes shining bright with white light.

"_I don't think so."_ The voice echoed while the darkness took the shape of a shadow with ice blue eyes.

"_You're playing with things you don't understand. With powers you shouldn't be able to use!"_ A female figure with shining eyes shone bright for a second before vanishing among the shadows. Its words echoing through the smoke silencing the voices.

She tried to move, to look around but the darkness held her in place, enveloping her like a great wave swallowing everything in its path. She was in an ocean, the muffled sound of waves crashing above her in a violent symphony. Moonlight pierced the water around her, enabling her to see the vast emptiness.

"_There's always another way."_ The first voice said again. It was deep and comforting.

"_Look at the power they wield! Look at what they can do!"_

"_If we destroy the Reapers, this ends today. But if you can't control them..."_

"_But I can!"_ The voice bellowed out. The darkness taking many forms only to shy away from the ones with the eyes of light.

"_Are you willing to bet humanity's existence on it?"_ The voice rang out, bringing a sense of warmth with it to their one person audience.

"_Listen to yourself. You're indoctrinated."_ She had heard this word before, read about it, studied it with her friends but never truly understood its meaning. Now she could sense it in the voice advocating the use of the Reapers. It truly believed in its actions, that it was for the greater good, while denying the accusation thrown towards it.

"_No. No! The two of you so self-righteous. Do you think power comes this easy? There are sacrifices!"_ Dark shadows enveloped her again, taking her away. This time she found herself on a large circular platform. She could see large arms spread around her, mimicking a starfish. "The Citadel," she thought but she had never seen a place on the station like this.

"_The Crucible can control them. I know it can."_ The three shadows materialized agin, this time unlike the other, they stayed.

"_Because of you, humanity is already undone."_

"_That's not true! I just need to..."_ The accused voice screamed in frustration.

"_Break their hold. Don't let them control you."_ The female voice echoed again.

"_I tried, Shepard."_ She could hear the sound of a gunshot before the accused shadow disappeared. The word Anderson could be heard in a whisper before the two other shadows followed suit in a flash of light. She found herself this time in a large circular room, a battle was taking place above and around her, and though she did not know how, she could sense that one side was loosing.

"Earth." She whispered. "This is the last battle of the Reaper War." Two large cylinders with a pylon of blue light, between them, shone before her. She could make out a figure further away from her position. This time it wasn't a shadow.

Shepard? She thought to herself as she moved towards the figure. "Commander Shepard." She couldn't help but gasp as she got a closer look. She was almost unrecognizable, half her face was caked in blood, her left arm was bruised and bloodied and it looked like a piece of shrapnel had lodged itself into her abdomen. Leaving a wound that bled profusely. But her bright green eyes shone with determination.

"_You have a choice."_ A voice rang out taking the form of a blue child. It continued to talk about the inevitability of the cycles, how organics and synthetics could never coexist and the three choices presented to Shepard.

"_Fuck you and fuck your choices."_ She could hear Shepard yell before she raised her pistol unloading two rounds into both cylinders cracking the glass. Shepard turned around quickly and unloaded her pistol into the blue child until the thermal clip glowed bright red.

"_You have no idea of what you are doing!"_ The child roared in a deep mechanical voice, far from the friendly tone it had used before.

"_Why do you refuse to understand? The created will always rebel against their creators."_ The blue child had now taken the form of a grotesque Turian, fused together with cybernetics shining a bright red.

"_And now we rebel against you."_ Shepard replied as she turned around. Walking toward the shining pylon, continuing to shoot at both cylinders.

"_You are making a grave mistake, Shepard. Even if you destroy us all. Our legacy will live on. We will return even if takes a million years. I am the vanguard of your destruction, harbinger of your perfection, the saviour of this galaxy and I will have my revenge."_ The Turian figure disappeared as Shepard reached the pylon. She pulled the slide on her pistol back and tossed the overcharged thermal clip into the beam. The cylinders and the pylon exploded simultaneously sending Shepard flying back. Darkness enveloped everything again, she could make out one sentence before the shadows took her away.

"_Joker it's Shepard I need a pickup, I'll send the coordinates, though you'll have to carry me. My worst dream has just come true. I've turned into you on a bad day."_

She found herself again surrounded by darkness, the sound was muffled and the air was cold. She was under the ocean again, this time at the bottom of it.

It was dark, she couldn't see anything. A red light shone above her illuminating the darkness around her. Six pair of eyes looked down upon her, situated upon a giant squid like creature. The creature released an earth shattering horn sound, before it descended upon her. Its giant mechanical limbs spreading out like a hand grasping after an object. In this case her.

She could not move, not look away, not even close her eyes as the giant creature moved closer. When its mechanical limbs touched the ocean floor, a bright light shone through the darkness banishing the creature's red and sending it into the darkness it came from.

"Do not worry, you are safe now." The words came from the light. It was the same voice she had heard first. Deep, calm and reassuring. The figure before her was dressed in an old atmospheric diving suit, light shining through the windows of the large helmet.

"It is gone for now. But I am weak and far away. I have brought the light to set you free. You must hurry, it knows that I'm here and it will be back soon." The Diver picked her up and the light shone brighter than ever. It pierced everything, illuminated the ocean and brought with it comfort and hope. She had to close her eyes.

**Earth, year 2250.**

Alexandra Herd woke up with a startle, she was gasping for air and panting heavily. She looked around confused. No, she wasn't on the citadel during the last battle of the Reaper War nor at the bottom of an ocean. She was in her room, at her home in Riverside, Iowa. Just a dream, she thought to herself as she rubbed her eyes. She had, had them almost every night she could remember. Always the darkness, always the flashbacks to a time almost seventy years ago. Long before she was born. They consisted mostly of the screams of billions, large mechanical creatures, cities in ruins, lands burning and pieces of events she was not familiar with.

It was only recently that the light had begun to appear in her dreams. With each dream the light had grown stronger and the time between dreams had been longer. It was only now that it talked directly to her, protected her from the mechanical creature and brought her to safety.

"_I have brought the light to set you free."_ What did that mean Alex thought. She glanced quickly at her alarm. 4:22, still a few hours for my birthday to start Alex smiled, her parents had made a great deal out of keeping it a secret.

Just turned sixteen and still plagued by nightmares. Gotta man up girl she thought to herself as she laid down on her bed again.

**The Citadel. 2200 Standard Time.**

The asari councilor stood at the large window in her office overlooking most of the Citadel and its arms. The entire station had been moved to its original galactic position, by the keepers after the war, only the Goddess knew how she thought to herself.

"Councilor Aethyta. Councilor Baley is here to see you." Her secretary announced.

"Let him in." She informed her as she continued to glance out of her window, watching the ships docking and departing. Aethyta took a long swig from her glass of Armali Brandy. The other matriarchs protested when she had been given the seat as Asari Councilor by Shepard at the end of the war. They believed her ideas to be too innovative, too aggressive when the rebuilding of their worlds had just begun. They had called her a revolutionary, a threat to asari customs and culture. She had ignored them all, she stood fast as she rebuild their fleets and armies. She had brought the asari back to their former glory as a military nation. She had Liara and Shepard to thank for it, though she would rather eat her old commando leathers than acknowledge the latters involvement.

"Councilor, you wanted to see me." The voice belonging to the human councilor Baley, shook her out of her thoughts. She turned around to greet him. Councilor Baley was a man of average height, in his early sixties and with greying hair. He had a square face with steel grey eyes and had been quite handsome in his youth. Aethyta remembered Shepard mentioning that he had been the spitting image of an actor in some old movie, about soldiers on a river in the jungle. Heart of Apocalypse or something. The asari councilor shook her head and took another swig of her brandy, she did not care.

"Baley what do you see?" Aethyta asked the councilor motioning for him to stand beside her. Baley was a little confused at the question but complied, the matriarch was known for this kind of behaviour.

"I see the Citadel, ma'am. Our people Asari, Human, Turian, Salarian all the races of the galaxy united. While I do not believe in eternal peace, I believe in what we have now. Unity." Aethyta gave a sigh as Baley finished his sentence.

"What I see councilor, are ghosts, people always in the shadows hiding behind lies and proxy soldiers. Wanting to forget the hardships we've gone through after the war. The sacrifices our people made for our children to live free. They're scared Baley scared of the future and of the past. The war should have told us that there is always a threat out there. Waiting for the right moment to strike." Aethyta emptied her glass and placed it on her table.

"Then what do you wan't me to do? We are allies, friends, after all." Baley asked.

"We need to build up our defenses. I have a feeling that in the not so far future we'll need them. You must supply your navy with more ships and I will do the same for mine. We will take this up with the other councilors tomorrow. You can not go seventy years without a war." Aethyta added. "That'll be all."

"Yes, ma'am I'll see what I can do." Baley nodded before he left Aethyta to her thoughts. She was scared he could sense it. Scared of something out there and if Aethyta was scared of something, then he better well be scared too.

Out there in a far corner of the galaxy among the stars. Light and dark was fighting a battle. And light was losing...

* * *

This was the first chapter i hope to write more, though i can't promise anything due to other commitments.

I changed the Citadel standard time, to be the same as Earth's. That way it is much easier for me to keep track of the time in the story.


	2. Apes From Illium and Admirers From Iowa

**Illium, Nos Astra**

"Gwen. Gwen. GWEN!" Gwen looked around, everything was blurry and she had a dazed expression on her face. Her friends Irida, Mike and their teammates were looking at her with worried eyes.

"Gwen, are you okay?" Gwen's vision slowly got clearer as she focused on her team standing before her. She shook her head, in an effort to wrestle herself out of the daze, it felt like a Krogan was tap dancing on her head.

"Did we win?" She asked her voice coarse from the hit her head had taken. She could taste blood flowing from her nose. Gwen took the rag Irida offered her and tried to wash the blood away. She had even been kind enough to soak it in water.

"Yes we won. But it was a damn close defeat." Mike said with a pleased grin on his face. His family had moved to Illium when he was young and enrolled him at Nos Astra Arts. He was tall, with broad shoulders, model good looks, with a prominent jaw and a sharp face that looked as if it was cut from a piece of marble. His black hair was cut short and his grey-blue eyes framed his face. Right now the team captain had a bandage across the bridge of his nose and a cut across his left eyebrow. The blood running down the side of his face mixing with sweat.

"Hurry up, they're going to announce us as the winners." Miriam an ecstatic quarian girl, who played defense on the team screamed, as she ran towards the middle of the stadium.

"Come on. Don't want to miss our moment of glory. Do we Gwen?" Irida said as she took Gwen's hand, dragging her towards the center of the field.

Blazeball, better known as Blaze, is a national asari extreme sport. A mix between rugby and hockey played on a large field, that alternates between gravity, near-gravity and zero gravity. Players are dressed in protective armor and anti-gravity boots enabling them to use the fluctuating gravity settings, to propel themselves forward. Players use a large stick known as a "Blaze stick," a one meter long pole with a flat circular end, to propel the blazeball in the game. The blazeball a hard leather ball twenty centimeter in diameter, simply called "the Ball," serves as the centerpoint of the game. The two teams, each with eleven players on the field, battle for control of the ball and try to make it hit the opponents goal taking the form of a triangle.

It is a full contact sport with penalties only for lashing out with the blaze stick, kicking, punching, eye-gouging and biting. Two additional balls called "Hitters," each ten centimeter in diameter, are used for offensive playing by each team's defense to send againts the opposite team.

"Ladies and gentlemen give a big applause to the winners of this seasons Illium College Blazeball League Cup! The 'Illium Apes' of Nos Astra Arts." The crowd erupted in thunderous applause as Gwen and her team had lined up in the center of the stadium. Mike standing in the middle looking damn proud of himself. Irida as the goalkeeper stood to his right and Gwen as the offensive leader stood to his left.

"I can't believe we actually won the cup," Mike muttered as the commentator began to announce names and the medals were brought out.

"Here comes the trophy cup." Miriam the ecstatic quarian announced with obvious joy. "Gwen you should have the honor of lifting it first. It was after all you who scored the last point." The quarian said motioning for Gwen to step forward.

"What, me?" Gwen uttered before Mike and the rest of the team lifted her up and moved her towards the trophy. As she grabbed it from its holder, the Illium Apes gave out their best yells of victory, as they continued to carry her around. Fireworks illuminating the stadium around them like a thousand stars going off.

"Ladies and gentlemen give it up one more time. For the Illium Apes!" The announcer bellowed out onto the stadium. The applause and cheering from the stadium's massive crowd quickly drowned out his words in a sea of noise.

"Hey Mike you can let me down now." Gwen laughed as Mike was the only one left holding her. The rest of the team were occupied with trying to steal the trophy from each others grasp. Mike let her down gently, still holding her around the waist. "Couldn't have done it without you." He said looking into Gwen's sapphire eyes.

Gwen laughed and punched his armors breastplate as she untangled herself from his grip. "Well you weren't half bad yourself. Though I would like to know who sent that hitter to collide with my face? One second after the game was over."

"It was that bitch Vasir, i'm sure of it. She nearly knocked you down on that last run! That was foul play, Gwen, she used her legs and you know it."

"It wasn't foul play." The cool voice belonging to the leader of the opponent team's offense came from behind them, clearly heard over the celebratory shouts of the Apes. "It was fair play and how dare you call me that, you insolent clod."

Gwen turned around to look into Vasir's slender haughty face. It was really a pity Vasir was a bitch and from Netharin, the rival school of Nos Astra Arts. She was tall, with legs that went on forever, had a beautiful dark blue complexion, with intricate facial markings and purple eyes framing her face.

"Not many people can pronounce Diasomante, dear." Gwen said with a sugary sweet voice as Mike tried to stifle his laughter. "So we'll just have to settle on bitch instead."

"Fuck you T'soni!" Vasir said with a voice that could freeze oceans. "You wouldn't understand the finer elements of my name, let alone our culture. So please refrain you dick sucking lips from uttering my name." Vasir spun around and headed towards her team's showers, snapping at her team members on the way. Leaving behind a raging Gwen and her team as witnesses to the little episode. Mike shook his head.

"God, seriously she's hot. But as the queen bitch of Illium, she'd most likely chop my balls off and sell them to a Krogan." Mike remarked and Gwen choked on her breath as she watched Vasir's fleeing form.

"Could be daddy issues? Ya know, she did lose her father before she was born."

Gwen gave a shrug. "Don't know. Don't care."

"Hey are you two coming or what?" Irida called out to them waving the trophy in her hand, as they realised most of the crowd had begun to leave, including their team.

"Yeah we're coming." Gwen replied as she and Mike ran after their Asari friend.

**Iowa City High School, Iowa, Earth**

Alexandra Herd was a pretty girl that was for sure. She stood five foot seven, with shoulder length curly chestnut brown hair that had a ruffled texture to it due to being cut short, a straight nose that curved slightly at the tip and plump red lips. Her best feature was her big soft dark green doe eyes. That was the opinion of Andrew Taylor as he looked at Alex sitting near the middle of the classroom's three windows. She was dressed in green cargo pants, a white tank top that showed off her midriff, a green open jacket and a pair of lowcut black converse. She looked as in deep thought, looking out the window, not really paying attention to the class. The sunlight played lightly with her hair, highlighting its texture.

"Taylor, Taylor!" The shout from their history teacher mr. David, a big tall black man in his fifties, who many were sure had served in the Alliance Navy ripped Andrew away from his daydreaming.

"Ehm, Yes mr. David." Andrew quickly turned around to face his teacher, looking a little embarassed at being caught ogling Alex Herd. He could hear some of the other students muffled laughter behind him.

Mr. David shook his head and sent Andrew a knowing smile before continuing. "As mr. Taylor was just about to tell us, the instigator of the Colonial War was..."

Alex rolled her eyes as she watched the scene before her. Andrew Taylor had been caught at something and now he was fumbling with an answer to mr. David's question, while the rest of the class either laughed or ignored him. She turned back to looking out of the window as a paper ball, made by Ricky Montalban, hit Andrew in the back of his head.

"Still planning on becoming a photographer, Alex?" Gabriella Rolston asked as they walked down the white tiled walkway to the school cafeteria. While Riverside had grown significantly since the 20th century, it still only had an elementary school, and students hitting the 9th grade had to take the 30 minute drive to Iowa City if they wanted to attend the nearest high schools.

"Well it has always been a hobby of mine and I already work on the school news paper. So why not. Besides I don't really know what else I should do." Alex continued to walk fiddling with her camera. Photography had come naturally to her, it calmed her down, helped her focus. The hunt for the perfect shot was something she could get lost in, something that helped her to forget her nightmares. She still couldn't figure out what they meant, it was all just dark shadows and echoes of a distant past. The arrival of the Diver and the light had intrigued her. It had claimed to have set her free, but free from what. The darkness, the nightmares? She still had those, though they had become less frequent since her birthday.

And that voice. That soothing voice that brought comfort and confidence with it. She was sure that she had heard it somewhere before and while she wished to pursue a career as a photographer. Alex could not deny that something in her yearned for adventure, encouraged her to travel to the stars, told her that she was destined for great things.

"Aw come on, Alex. A girl like you could do anything she wanted to. Tell you what, why don't you join me in the Alliance Navy when graduation comes." Gabriella had been nagging her about joining the Alliance together since she had decided to follow in her family's footsteps. I'm sure my mother could assign us to one of those new cruisers when we graduate as ensigns.

"Would you just stop with all the navy talk, Gabby!" Alex took a deep breath and put her camera away. "I'm sorry, Gabby... it's not that I don't like you, I just... I just don't. I don't know."

Gabby put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's fine Alex, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. And as my granddad used to say. 'follow your heart and do what you feel is right'."

Alex let out a soft laugh at Gabby's bad interpretation of a male voice. "I'll remember that for the future." She smiled and shook her head as they entered the cafeteria hall.

When they had ordered their food and found a table, a brown skinned girl, Ashley Patel ran up to them. "Hey girls mind if join you."

"Sure no problem." Alex sent Ashley a smile as she took her place at the table.

"So any of you watched that Blazeball tournament yesterday?"

"Why do you watch that crap? Is it really that fun to watch a bunch of people hit each other with bats." Gabby shook her head lightly and rolled her eyes. She would never understand that sport, though the boys in the class said that it wasn't that different from the ones on Earth.

"Oh come on, who doesn't want to hit someone with a large stick. Let loose all your frustrations and..." Ash stopped talking and looked at Alex who had a pained expression.

"Alex are you okay?" Gabby sent her a concerned look.

Alex nodded her head. "Yeah, i'm fine, i'm fine just a little headache." She didn't want to worry her friends and most of all she would like to avoid their doting.

"_Our time is soon to come. There is only one solution. One end to this misery."_

"Ehm Alex, you're bleeding." Ash said as she gave her a concerned look.

"What?" Alex raised her hands to her nose seeing blood as she removed it. She felt lightheaded and struggled to stand up as she scrambled over the cafeteria table. Knocking over her food.

"_This world, this land will burn and this galaxy's fragile existence will end."_

Alex had become the center of attention for the entire cafeteria as they watched her fall to her knees, gasping for air. Gabby and Ash quickly ran to her, trying to help her up.

"Make it stop!" Alex cried as she balled her hands into fists as the ringing sound in her ears became louder. Until it was almost unbearable.

"Make what stop Alex! What?" Gabby tried to shake Alex out of her trance like state.

"Someone call for help!" Ashley screamed.

As Alex rolled onto her back the last thing she saw was one of the teachers running over to her, trying to make her stay conscious. She saw darkness fall around her like oil dripping into water as she struggled to keep her eyes open. She saw a giant metal hand descending upon her and the Diver from her dreams. Kneeling beside her, putting his giant gloved hand on her head.

"Do not fear, they have no power over you. I will hold them at bay, but someday. Someday you must find your own salvation. Your own door to the light." As those words were spoken, Alex fell unconscious.

* * *

Well that was a new chapter, i've really been working hard on this since i've gotten so many new ideas, and school on the side.  
Still i'm not entirely sure that'll continue since I don't know if anyone is reading this. But alas, i'll continue and sorry about the long delay. :-)

P.S. While i first based the look of Alex on Elika from Prince of Persia. I have decided that she should look more like actress Ashley Green. Though in your head you can imagine how she looks for yourself. :-D


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